After at least three years outside the loop, UNM is initiating training for faculty and staff members about federal rules regulating confidential student information, the University's registrar said.
UNM Provost Brian Foster circulated a University-wide memo Oct. 1 reminding faculty and staff to remain in compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA.
Keeping University employees up to speed on the act "should be standard operating procedure," UNM Registrar Kathleen Sena said. "But it's been awhile since everyone had it out in front of them."
Sena said the registrar's office offers regulation workshops for faculty and staff on the fourth Thursday of every month.
The U.S. Department of Education administers and enforces the act, which was passed into law in 1974. Its aim is to protect the privacy of student education records.
Under the law, schools can disclose, without consent, information such as a student's name, address, telephone number and dates of attendance.
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Student information can also be shared between departments within the University, UNM attorney Melanie Baise said. Other exceptions include health or safety emergencies that could affect the whole campus community.
Protected information includes grades and transcripts.
The most pressing concern for universities implementing the act, Sena said, is identifying students with their social security numbers, which can lead to identity theft.
"Some months I get about a dozen requests from students to change the number we identify them by to another nine-digit number," she said.
UNM only uses the last four digits of social security numbers as an identifier. Sena said that is changing as the University transitions to Project LINK - a still-under-development integrated computer system.
"As of January 2004, we'll be moving away from using the social security number," she said. "Students, faculty and staff will be assigned a random, nine-digit code."
Common violations of the act at UNM include teachers leaving graded tests or papers outside their offices, Sena said.
"We go out and tell them that's not appropriate, and that they need to leave those with a department administrator," she said.
